That Bitter Root Explained

Something I have been pondering for many months.  It needed to simmer, so that when expressed, would be in my own words, and not those of others.  Not that others cannot say it better.  But if I am to say it, there is little value in parroting what others have already communicated.

This writer has always been blessed (afflicted?) with a sensitive conscience.  And a consuming desire to please others, and God.  And a very conspicuously imperfect human nature.  Which means a constant struggle with guilt, deserved or no.

Enter Hebrews 12.  Beginning verse 14.  

Follow peace with all men,

and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.

Looking diligently

lest any man fail of the grace of God;

lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you,

and thereby many be defiled;

Countless sermons, classes, Bible studies, personal readings on that verse.  All managed eventually to camp on that phrase, "lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you."

Invariably, the teaching was along the lines of:

Don't get bitter in your heart.

No matter what.

You must let it go.

Conquer your feelings; they are evil.

You have to forgive and forget.

Bitterness will destroy you.

How, exactly, does one go about doing that?  What if the offense won't be forgotten?  After all, God is the only one who can truly forget.  And what is the difference between inability to forget pain caused by the offense, and "bitterness?"

Round and round.  Condemnation.  Guilt. Trying harder. Over and over again.

Until one day.

I heard a devotional by John Piper on this very scripture passage.  He asked questions I never thought to ask.  He dared ask questions I feared to ask.

So I checked it out for myself.  In Scripture and using Strong's Concordance.

I learned that this passage is actually a quote from the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 29:18.  The chapter surrounding this verse describes the covenant God made with His people.  The reason for the covenant?  That His people would have a boundary to keep them centered on Him, and a standard by which to judge when they strayed.

Lest there should be among you 
man,

or woman,

or family,

or tribe,

whose heart turneth away this day from the Lord our God,

to go and serve the gods of these nations;

lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall (bitterness) and wormwood (poison);

That bitter root is not an emotion, or a feeling that takes "root" in my heart and "grows".  That root is a person ("man, woman, family, tribe") who, having known the grace of God, allows himself to be turned away from that grace and to go his own way, all the while assuming that because he is still physically a part of a faith community, he will still receive the protection afforded to those who remain within its spiritual boundaries.

The bitterness is the fruit, the consequences, of that action.  To himself and others he leads astray.

John Piper says it like this:

...a “root of bitterness” is a person or a doctrine in the church which encourages people to act presumptuously and treats salvation as an automatic thing that does not require a life of vigilance in the fight of faith and the pursuit of holiness. Such a person or a doctrine defiles many and can lead to the experience of Esau who played fast and loose with his inheritance and could not repent in the end, and find life.

The sobering result of all this?  Deuteronomy 29:20,

The Lord will not spare him,

but then the anger of the Lord and His jealousy shall smoke against that man,

and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him,

and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven.

And the Lord shall separate him unto evil...

And Hebrews 12:17, regarding the example of Esau,

...when he would have inherited the blessing,

he was rejected;

for he found no way of repentance,

though he sought it carefully with tears.

Which also tells me that if one who has tasted the grace of God continually persists in going his own way, there will come a time when God will no longer forgive, no longer make His grace available.

One scripture of many on this, Psalm 81:12,

So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust,

and they walked in their own counsels.

What I learned?  The guilt, the misunderstanding that caused an unwinnable battle, is gone, covered in His grace.  The challenge is before me.

Romans 8:1

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.

who walk not after the flesh,

but after the Spirit.

By His strength, I walk in the Spirit.  No longer carrying a burden I am not meant to carry.  Instead, 

...looking to Jesus,

the Author and Finisher of my faith.